Takeshi - July 3, 1998

I took a while for me to teach Takeshi how to read. Poor Takeshi was my Guinea pig. I really wasn't sure what I was doing, and most of what we did was trial and error. He would have learned faster if I just kept up with it, but I let other things get in the way of our "school" lessons. He loved our reading games as long as I was consistant and had fun playing with him. Once I started to get tired or frustrated, he didn't want to play anymore. I don't blame him - no one wants to play with a cranky mommy :)

I am so glad that I stuck with it. Ernest was much easier to teach because I had a lot more confidence and knew what worked and what didn't!

Takeshi - July 2, 1998

Takeshi will be 4 this month. My dad bought "The Junior Phonics Game" a couple of weeks ago. Takeshi and his cousin Thomas love it. Takeshi can sound out 2 and 3 letter words now. Now I am going to make flashcards for the blends like "ck", "ch" etc.

Takeshi - June 2, 1998

I asked my dad to buy "The Junior Phonics Game". Takeshi and I are not doing too much school these days. He know his numbers and we played "Go Fish" to learn them. I bought some number cards (like Uno) at a garage sale for .10 cents. Takeshi loves to play it.

Takeshi - February 15, 1998

We haven't had school in so long. I finally clean up the "school" closet. I will start school Tuesday (Monday is a holiday).

Takeshi - January 20, 1998

I have to think of a way to accomplish more reading. Takeshi decided he doesn't like his whole word cards. I think I just have to go through the "Hooked on Phonics" program without the 'sounding out' part. Takeshi still doesn't grasp the whole concept of phonics.

Takeshi - January 19, 1998

Today we started our "school" routine again. I guess you could say we had a Christmas break.

I brought the big number cards out and Takeshi said "I don't like those now". I had to convince him that we were going to play a new fun game (which we did). He know 1-9 pretty good so he said those numbers and then "shot" them with his Power Ranger.

We also did one page in our "Hooked on Phonics" book. Sounding out words is going alot slower than I thought it would.

Takeshi - December 22, 1997

We haven't done anything for a while because Ernest got really sick. I tried to teach Takeshi, but I got frustrated too easily. I knew it was because I was getting up every hour at night with Ernest, so we are taking a sick break. We will continue reading after Christmas.

Takeshi - December 16, 2008

Today Leia came over and she played "Blocks" and the "Bean Bag Toss" game with Takeshi. The she helped me color a lot of other games. Every day I will do a different word ending: "at", "an", "ag" & "ad". Sunday, I'll try not to do anything except prepare for next week. The "Hooked on Phonics" book reviews every other page so I don't think Takeshi will forget what he has learned.

Takeshi - December 15, 1997

Tonight we played again and we had fun. I wrote the "at" words on our 3x5 cards and Takeshi wanted to play the "Taxi" game. I pretended that my hand was a person and said "Pick me up at the ___ store!" Then we played the "Bean Bag Toss" game and then the "Blocks" game.

Takehsi had a hard time with "rat". He would say "rrr" "at" - "Robot!" I said, "Robot starts with 'r' too, but 'rrrrat' also starts with 'r'".

Takeshi - December 14, 1997

Today Takeshi painted in his workbooks. He really liked that. I also read "The Cat in the Hat" to hm and pointed to every "at" word as I read. That was ok, but then he was hungry. While I was making Macaroni and Cheese, I got out the magnetic letters and put "at" on the refrigerator. I said "What does that say?" Takeshi said "at". I was surprised because we've only seen it in lower case, not capital letters. Then I told him I was going to make a magic trick. Then I said that I could change the "at" to a "mat", and I put the "m" in front of the "at". I said "Now it says 'mat' just like we're sitting on a mat". I took the "m" off and said "Now you try to change the 'at'". Takeshi took the "m" and said "it says 'mat', just like we're sitting on". Then I said try one more. He took the "c" and put it up. I said "what does it say?", and he said "Cookie". I said "It's almost like cookie, it has a 'c' just like cookie." Then I sounded out "cat" for him.

Then I took a black pen and wrote "A fat ____ sat on a ____" and I wrote "cat, rat, bat, hat and mat" on flashcards. Takeshi chose 2 words and I read the sentence for him. We did this 2 times and then we ate.

I just assumed Takeshi would understand how to sound out words. Takeshi loves to read words and say the letter names and sounds, but he doesn't like to sound out words.

Takeshi - December 13, 1997

Yesterday we played in the morning and Takeshi got all the letter sounds right, even the G. I decided to do the next step which was learning to put the sounds together - which was a mistake. The 1st words to learn are the "at" words. Takeshi already knows "at" so I thought this would be easy. I got out our train and Takeshi didn't understand sounding out words. I could see he was frustrated and NOT INTERESTED. So then I tried all his favorite games with the "at" words, but he didn't want to play. I wanted to just keep pushing him until he "got" it, but I knew that he didn't want to and pushing would just make it worse. So we stopped for the night and played toys.

Takeshi - December 11, 1997

Today was Kirk's day off and things kept happening all day so we didn't do school until this evening. Takeshi was so tired but he still wanted to play. We went through the whole alphabet and Takeshi only missed "L, O, U & G". He always missed "G", but he's gotten the others right before.

I think next week Monday we can go onto the next lesson. I have to add some more whole words to his other games to catch up. When I don't keep up with new material I can see him getting bored.

We finished the ABC workbooks today. Now what do I do?

Takeshi - December 10, 1997

Today we were gone all day so tonight after Ernest fell asleep we played our games and workbooks. Takeshi just wants to keep playing and playing. Kirk was so impressed with what Takeshi knew. We didn't read a story book tonight.

We spend 20 minutes to 1 hour a day total on "School"

Takeshi - December 9, 1997

I noticed if I put too many new words/letters then Takeshi would get frustrated. I have to keep a good balance and not give him too much at once.

Today we played "Clean Dada's Work Pants". Takeshi said "hu" for "h" and then he erased it. He didn't erase it all so it looked like an "r", and then Takeshi said "rrrr". I was so shocked because we didn't even get to that part of the alphabet yet. The only exposure he's really had is the ABC Video.

Then we played the "Semi-Circle Train" game and he knew almost all the sounds of the alphabet. We played the "Word Muncher" game and he read "has". Takeshi said "hu" "a" "ssss". He is so smart!

Takeshi - December 8, 1997

I am going to try to take detailed notes of all our activities. This is our plan:

1. Workbooks (started ABC ones after he knew most of his letters)
2. Phonics Games
3. Word Games
4. Numbers Games
5. Read to him at bedtime

I will make a note of all new games we play. Today I wrote the letters on the chalkboard and Takeshi had Buzz (from Toy Story) fly to a letter. Then Buzz would say the sound, and I would erase it. When we played the "Bean Bag Toss" game, Takeshi would have Woody throw the bean bag.

Takeshi - November 30, 1997

Takeshi learns so fast! We played "Slam Dunk" and we had to put down 4 new sight words. By Takeshi's 3rd turn he knew them all!

Takeshi - November 24, 1997

Today we started on the sounds of the letters. Takeshi still gets "b" and "d" mixed up, but I think it's not worth a whole month to get these two letters straightened out. I know that he'll get them as we go along.

Takeshi - November 11, 1997

Takeshi is so smart. Today we did the "test" in "Hooked on Phonics". Takeshi knew all of them except for the lower case "l". He thought it was a number 1. I asked Takeshi if he could help me read the letters. He was excited about that and so he would say the names of the letters and I would repeat them. After he was done "teaching" me, I gave him a big hug and said "Thank you for helping me". He said "You're Welcome". I said "You can teach me to be as smart as you!" Takeshi just smiled and nodded.

Takeshi - November 13, 1997

Takeshi is doing so good. We played "Blocks" with his numbers and we played a new game with his airplane and race cars.

Race Car Game: We taped a lower case letter on his car and then he "races" his car to the correct uppercase letter (printed on a flashcard)

Airplane Game: We put all the lower case letters around him in a semi-circle. He would "take off" with his airplane and "land" on whatever letter I announced. Then we would take away that letter and replace it with another.

Takeshi - November 3, 1997

Takeshi knows ALL his capital and lower case letters except for b, d, p & q in lower case. Sometimes he mixes up l, i & j. I talked to my brother and he says he reads "Chronicles of Narnia" to his 5 year olds. Wow!!